Training Day
by Ker Wan
Summary: A team of Toa are out for a training exercise. Except for Fe-Toa Sehn, who has to be dragged out of bed by his leader. When the training exercise goes awry, it's up to the leader to make amends with her teammate. Sort of lemon-y, but not quite, still heavy implication of such.


_**TRAINING DAY**_

Dawn, time to get to work.

It was still proving hard for Sehn to remember in the morning that he had other responsibilities to attend to these days, so like so often before his first act when he opened his eyes was to divert his gaze to the nearby wall of his menial lodging, to confirm when his shift actually started.

Like before, he was greeted by the solid steel wall of his new, far more spacious lodgings. The noises of Fe-Koro starting up for another hard day's work were muted, he now realized, because of course they were no longer right outside his bedroom door.

The Toa of Iron pushed himself out of his bed, standing to his full, imposing height. He stood still for a moment and stretched his neck with an audible crack. He was still fighting some grogginess from sleeping, and it wasn't going away.

He shambled out of his bedroom, crossing over into his combined living room and workshop with his eyes calmly scanning his surroundings. Still unarmored, Sehn made his way to his workbench, and started rummaging around in one of the cupboards. After shoveling through an unending sea of spare parts and old tools, his hand finally emerged gripping a dusty bottle labeled "Gravel Grog".

Sehn uncorked the bottle and peered into it, finding it half-full. He grumbled with mild dissatisfaction and took a sip of what was left of the miner's beverage, his head clearing a little bit more. Finally he could think somewhat straight.

" _I can't remember anything special that was gonna happen today,"_ he thought to himself, reclining in his workshop chair, _"might as well stick around here and not bother anyone today."_. To the Toa of Iron, it sounded like a great idea.

Sehn pulled up a blueprint, and starting tweaking with it to implement his latest ideas for the design.

As Sehn sat there, with nothing on his mind but weapon schematics and designs, he started feeling contented, even happy, as he was enjoying himself taking the time to fiddle with weapon designs and blueprints.

His bliss was rudely interrupted, however, by the sound of someone banging on the door.

" _Who on Atara Nui could that be?"_ he wondered sincerely, and made his way to the door.

The face that met him when the door swung up was scrunched up by narrowed eyes, thinned lips and a death-dealing glare, Sehn immediately felt himself sweating.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten what today was supposed to be!" Xarya said with acid in her voice.

"No, of course I haven't!" Sehn blurted out reflexively, the statement somewhat undermined by his lacking armor and drowsy blinking.

"Team practice, from sunrise" the Toa of Lightning said, leaning uncomfortably close to Sehn, who took an involuntary step back. He felt an intense urge to bite back at her, but the look she gave him kept his mouth tightly shut.

"Suit up and get over there, stat" Xarya ordered, punctuating the statement with an authoritative thump in the ground with her trident, before she marched off.

Sehn muttered and grumbled under his breath as he strapped on his heavy armor and grabbed his Toa Tools. When he finally stepped outside, the usually so familiar noise of Fe-Koro's machines and industry didn't help in the slightest. Sehn kicked a rock out of his way with a lot of pent-up force.

When he finally arrived at the training site, he saw the rest of the team already at it or taking a much-needed break. He was especially surprised to see that even Rilvi had done a better job of remembering and getting out of bed before he did. This annoyed him even more, why should she, the actually forgetful one, get a lucky break today when he did not?

The Toa of Plasma looked up and smiled when she saw him, "hey there, Sehn. Xarya finally managed to drag you out of bed, too?"

Sehn mustered a nod in response, trying as hard as possible to stifle an incoming yawn.

"Xarya's been holding off on getting a sparring partner till you came along, by the way. It's your turn today, after all" Rilvi noted as she got up. She gave Sehn a last nod before she caught the eyes of Veral, who was also finished with her own break.

While Rilvi and the Toa of Plantlife went off to work on practicing their mask powers, Sehn was left standing face to face with his team leader, clutching his hammer.

He closed his eyes when Xarya's trident blinked in the sunlight, and slowly lifted his arms to raise his weapon. Hopefully he could just hide under his armor and get this overwith before long.

Xarya's first strike landed right in his gut, and even through his armor, Sehn felt the pommel at the end of her trident bury itself further into his stomach than he'd like.

Still reeling from the blow, Sehn was unable to defend himself when a second swipe knocked him to the ground, where he remained until Xarya barked at him to get back up.

Sehn did so, slowly forcing himself to his feet, and managed to muster a determined stare back at Xarya's when she beckoned him to come at her again.

Sehn wasn't tired anymore, there was nothing holding him back now. He just wanted to knock that self-assured glare off of Xarya's face, just for a moment, so he could have some respite from this crappy day he was having so far.

He charged, bruising forward with his massive bulk, and swung his hammer towards where Xarya had been. His hammer connected with nothing but air as he felt the familiar swipe across his backside. He ignored it as he swung around, this time almost making contact, but Xarya evaded him again and delivered another blow to his side.

Sehn swung around again, but this time he kept up his momentum and, rather than swing his weapon, barreled into Xarya at full force. She groaned and toppled to the ground. A satisfied grin flashed across Sehn's face, only to be cut short when Xarya quickly recovered and slipped her trident in between his legs. Before Sehn knew what was happening, he was on the ground again with Xarya looming over him.

"You weren't even trying to study my fighting, were you? She asked. When are you going to realize that you can't just barge into things and hope that thick skull of yours can save you"

Sehn's eyes flared dangerously as he got up. That was it, he'd had it. Not enough she had to drag him, half-asleep, out of bed and home just to use him as a punching bag, but now she was going to insult him, too?

"I'll bet it works just as well as treating your team like dirt and not even stopping to think about their needs for a moment" he snarled back.

"Oh, what's that?" Xarya asked, "didn't get your beauty sleep today, is that it?"

Sehn didn't even want to get into a fight, he turned around and stomped off, ignoring Xarya's commands that he come back.

Xarya remained there, looking at where the Toa of Iron had stormed off, suddenly speechless, not even registering the disapproving stares she got from her teammates.

When Xarya found Sehn again, he was sitting at the nearby lakebed, grumbling to himself and throwing rocks into the stream, each of them making a larger splash than the last.

She cleared her throat, but didn't say anything. Sehn threw one look behind him, narrowed his eyes and turned around again.

"Go away"

"Sehn, don't be like that" Xarya said, with a bit less of a bark than before.

"Well I'm not gonna start being like you, and clearly that's all you can accept, isn't it?" Sehn replied.

Xarya forced herself to stop before she replied in kind. No, now was not the time, she had to suck it up and fix the mess she made.

"Sehn, you know the only reason I'm hard on you, on all of us, is because I want us to be the best Toa we can be"

"It sure didn't feel like that earlier, I just felt like I was dragged out of bed to be humiliated for having _one_ slip of memory" he replied. He felt Xarya's hand settle on his shoulder, he didn't attempt to shake her off.

But then, he was taken aback when Xarya spoke, in a much softer tone "Sehn, come with me, please?"

He finally turned around to look at her, and didn't see a trace of the stern, serious expression he was so used to seeing his leader with. Her Kau Kau was settled in a much more somber expression as she removed her hand from his shoulder to offer it to him.

"What do you want now?" he asked, the hostility in his voice faltering a little.

"Look, you've had a really bad day so far, and I never meant for that to happen. I want to make it up to you, if you'll come with me."

"Honest?"

"Honest!"

Sehn took a moment to consider. He was still angry, but not so that he wasn't willing to give her a chance. He let his taking of her hand serve as his yes as he got up. Xarya's face brightened a little as she pointed at the entrance to a nearby cave. "In there".

Sehn had no idea what Xarya was planning, but he appreciated that she wasn't barking orders at him, so he decided he could play along for now.

Xarya led him into the cave, eventually reaching an open room, where a sparkling spring of clear water took up most of the surface area.

"What is this?" Sehn asked.

"Places like this is where I relax and recharge," Xarya explained, gesturing to the pool of water, "I'd like you to get that chance, too, so you can really get all that sleep and dirt out of your system"

"Well, I definitely could use a bath" Sehn had to admit, looking himself over briefly.

"Me too," Xarya agreed, with a hint of mischief in her voice that flew right above Sehn's head.

Sehn approached the water, and took a moment to get out of his armor, before sinking into the water. Even the Toa of Iron had to give way to a small fit of shivers in the cold water, but it didn't take long before he could lean back and let the water wash over him. He settled against the edge on the other side, lower body submerged, and gave a contented sigh.

"Feeling better?" Xarya's voice asked, Sehn nodded with closed eyes.

"Yeah, yeah this is just what I needed" he said, opening his eyes when he felt ripples in the water. He looked up to see Xarya stepping into the water after him, wading to the center of the pool before she stopped.

"Well, I'm not done yet" she said, and this time Sehn managed to catch wind of the mischievous tone, and both his brows arched upwards. Xarya closed her eyes, and stuck her fingertips just into the water.

Suddenly, a feeling that Sehn had never felt before crept up in him from above. Something was pricking all over the part of his body that was submerged, and wherever it touched him, he felt a small, but sudden and energetic jolt of power surge through a small part of his body from where the feeling had originated. The feeling was completely new to him, and at first, he was alarmed, but slowly, slowly he found himself relaxing into this strange, wondrous sensation that claimed more and more of him as more of his body slid into the water. He had no idea what was causing this, but the feeling it gave him was incredible. It felt like every part of his body was being revitalized and given new energy, a wave of something indescribably good rushing through him and making his heart swell in his chest.

After an unknown amount of time spent in a previously unknown state of bliss (Sehn had lost track of time for a while), the feeling dissipated, but Sehn still felt better than for the longest time he could remember as he opened his eyes. He felt incredibly light and happy, the feeling from the beginning of the day completely gone. He couldn't see it, but his heartlight was glowing unusually bright at that moment when he rose out of the water to look at Xarya, who dried her wet fingertips with a few waves of her hands.

Sehn watched her for a moment, still thinking about what had just happened.

"You… did you do that?" he finally managed to ask. Xarya nodded.

"It's how I get rid of my stress after a long day, I just… let it fill me from top to bottom and it makes me feel good" she explained, a little shyly.

Sehn waded over to her where she was still standing in the middle of the pool, questions and curiosity still overwhelming him.

"How did you do that… make me… feel that way?" he finally managed to ask.

"My powers" she explained, demonstrating by once again dipping one of her fingers in the water, after which Sehn suddenly felt the pleasurable rush flow through his right leg for a brief moment before Xarya removed her finger from the water.

"It was actually Rilvi who first showed it to me; I think it was her idea, actually" she explained.

"So, did you like it?" she asked, looking up at the noticeably taller Toa of Iron.

"Did I like it?" Sehn asked with a sense of bafflement in his voice. Struggling for words, he took Xarya's hand and squeezed it, "I… Xarya, I don't think I've ever felt so good in my life. It was incredible"

Xarya smiled softly, returning the squeeze with her own.

"Well, alright, I guess we should go and find the others now", she said, and moved to release their grip, but Sehn didn't let go.

She turned to look at him, and was surprised when she saw him look at her in a way she'd never seen anyone look at her before. There was a new, strange flame aglow in the Toa of Iron's eyes, but he still didn't say anything.

"Sehn, what are you-" she tried to speak up, but was suddenly cut off by a new, strange feeling beginning to spread through her body, starting where Sehn's hand still held hers. Now it was her turn to feel completely overwhelmed by a feeling she'd never had before. It felt like her entire body was humming, vibrating, sending totally unexpected waves of energy flowing through her from top to bottom, making her head spin and her knees tremble.

She'd long since stopped asking by the time she figured out what was going on, she just let herself fall over into Sehn's arms as he continued making her body pulse with pleasure through his own elemental power, giving him complete control over her mostly metallic body.

She pressed herself against him, wanting more, and Sehn responded in kind, tightening the embrace while Xarya let her own power flow into him again, beckoning satisfied moans to echo from them both in tandem.

Eventually, Sehn and Xarya both let the feeling slowly fade out, and Xarya lifted her head from where it was resting on his chest. The first thing that caught her eye was his brightly glowing heartlight, and she looked down towards her own chest to find her own heartlight glowing just as brightly.

Xarya was the first to break the silence, still hugging the Toa of Iron tightly, with water at waist-height sloshing around them.

"That was… I never got to feel like that by myself" was all she could say.

Sehn shrugged lightly, "guess because you're resistant to your own element, it's not as effective"

"Mhmm" Xarya muttered, settling back against his chest. She honestly didn't care about that right now. She just wanted to enjoy the intimacy she was having with her teammate. Sehn had no intention of getting in the way, either.

But eventually, Xarya's mind bent back onto old tracks, and she stepped out of the embrace, still holding Sehn's hands.

"I guess it's about time we got back to the others" she said.

"Yeah," Sehn nodded back, "I think I'd like that".

Xarya smiled at Sehn's complete reversal of attitude, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. Sehn, though surprised at first, returned it in kind by briefly resuming the tight embrace before they parted.

"Thank you, Xarya" he managed to stutter.

"You too", Xarya replied.


End file.
